


and you use your pain ('cause it makes you you)

by F0R3ST



Series: the horrible, no-good life of alex mercer (featuring some friends you already know the names of) [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Has A Sibling (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex Has Bad Parents (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex and Julie bonding, Alex-centric, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Gay Character, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Includes my random HC that Alex's from Germany, Multi, Past Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), the boys are mentioned - Freeform, we don't talk about canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27523237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F0R3ST/pseuds/F0R3ST
Summary: "I, uh. Where’s your phone book?”---Julie helps Alex find his sisters 25 years after his death
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina, Alex (Julie and The Phantoms) & Original Female Character(s)
Series: the horrible, no-good life of alex mercer (featuring some friends you already know the names of) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2002894
Comments: 7
Kudos: 118





	and you use your pain ('cause it makes you you)

**Author's Note:**

> tbh i wouldn't ask about my HC that Alex is from Germany. It's just there.
> 
> edit: i have fixed it to Alex's canon last name seeing as those were released earlier today

“So, what about your guys’ families? We’ve only really talked about Luke’s,” Julie asked innocently from her spot behind her keyboard one day. Alex and Reggie’s heads shot up, nervous looks evident on their faces. Alex became a spluttering mess, trying to give any reason not to talk about them, while Reggie tensed, eyes wide. “You don’t have to talk about them right now, don’t worry. I was just curious.”

And that was that.

About a week later, Julie found Alex going through the living room, seemingly looking for something. She just stood there, her arms crossed over her chest as he continued and she waited. The blond screwed his face up in confusion, looking from the coffee table to the side table in between the two couches.

“Where is it?” He asked himself, pushing a hand through his hair. When Julie finally asked , “Where’s what?”, he let out a small scream (and a string of words, most likely curses, in another language. She would have to ask him later about that) and jumped. Alex sighed when he realized it was Julie and put a hand over his heart,,, or where it would be.

“I, uh. Where’s your phone book?” Alex questioned after calming some from the scare. He was still nervous she would be mad at him for looking around without asking first, but was only slightly relieved when she just let her face screw up in confusion.

“Never needed one,” She responded as she walked over and plopped herself on the living room sofa. “Everything went digital. Also it was kind of weird to have your phone number for anyone to access. But back to you. Why do you need it?”

“I, uh, I wanted to find any of my sisters,” Alex rubbed the back of his neck and adjusted his fanny-pack while looking anywhere, but Julie’s eyes. The blond never talked about his family with her before. Or anyone before or after that night in ‘94.

“I can help if you want, lemme get my laptop and we can start,” The Puerto Rican girl smiled at the surprised Alex and his bewilderment at the idea of everything being online. She hopped up and quickly ran upstairs to her room and Alex just poofed inside her room’s doorway as she opened it. Her silver laptop sat closed on her messed up sheets and Julie just placed herself in front of it, opening it and immediately going to the Google search bar. “You said you have multiple, so just choose one and we’ll work from there.”

“Uh, Alice Mercer?” The words that left his mouth sounded more like a question than a statement, but Julie didn’t seem to question the tone as Alex pulled on his fingers. Then he noticed a very specific look dance across Julie’s face but couldn’t recognize it. His face fell concerned and he ran over to sit next to her, making sure she was okay. “What is it?”

“ _The_ Alice Mercer?” Julie seemed ecstatic at just the name of his older sister. Alex looked at her, confusion once again playing into every feature on his face. He just nodded slowly and she squealed, her face lighting up as the seconds passed by. “She’s a legend, Alexander,” Alex shifted uncomfortably in his seat at being called his full name, “Sorry. But, still, Alex. She’s basically the queen of the Seattle riot grrrl scene. And she’s your sister? I’mma need proof before you say anything else.”

“I- okay,” Alex looked taken aback from the new information he found out about Alice. He hadn’t seen her since she whispered goodbye to him on that December night of 1992, so to find out she was somewhat famous made him proud of her. He would always be proud of her no matter what, but that’s beside the point.

The blond moved the pouch of his fanny-pack to sit back across his chest than rather at his side and unzipped one of the pockets. He had some old Polaroids in there at all times for whenever he needed to see his sisters’ faces. He pulled out one from when he was 13, Alice had just turned 17 and he remembered an 11 year old Alicia struggling to take the picture without dropping the camera. Alex was almost her height, him being tall evident from every documentation of his life.

“Here, this is my favorite, please don’t ruin it,” Alex worried as he gently handed it to the Latina, trying not to touch any part of it besides the white area with the caption “Alice’s birthday, July 1990” written with a sharpie in Alex’s neat handwriting. Julie whispered a promise not to touch the actual photo as it traveled from his pale hand to her tan one. She gasped as she saw a young Alex standing next to one of her favorite artists, her arm slung around the kind of shorter boy. He was wearing a sweatshirt with some brand logo Julie didn’t recognize on the front and jeans. Alice looked completely different from him with ripped fishnets underneath a pair of black shorts, her leather jacket longer than the fabric on her legs and hiding a random band shirt. Her makeup was dark and Julie could almost make out a man in the back, some of the flash lighting up part of his face. That was probably Alex’s dad, so the girl didn’t ask about him.

“You weren’t kidding-” Julie smiled at the picture before handing it carefully back to Alex as she met her eyes with his. “I’m pretty sure she still lives in Seattle, but I can help you find the others. You said you had more than one, so what are their names?”

“Uh, we have Alyssa and Alicia, the twins. They were two years younger than me. And Allison was a year and a half older. She had a boyfriend, Charles, at the time, so we could check with Mercer and then his name if they stayed together?” Alex answered, even if he started to ask Julie a question towards the end. She just nodded and looked back to her screen, typing in Allison’s name first, a good amount of Facebook links popping up. She sighed and went to images, a bunch of middle-aged white ladies’ faces staring back at her. She slowly scrolled and told Alex to stop her if he saw a familiar face. It took a while of scrolling, but Alex tapped her at some point, putting a finger close to a thin lady in her 40s with her cheek to another person who was cropped out of the photo. She had darker blonde hair, but still blonde and her smile immediately reminded Julie of the ghost sitting next to her.

Julie clicked on the Facebook page and looked at the information on her profile, finding out she still lived in Los Angeles. But she also found something interesting. “The hometown says Baden-Baden, Germany?” She shot another confused look towards Alex and he just shrugged.

“I mean that’s where I grew up, so it would make sense,” The teen said quite calmly and Julie just stared.

“You’re German?” Julie almost screamed, but quieted herself to a raspy whisper-shout at Alex, who just smiled and said something about how his accent-hiding was getting better. Julie shut her eyes for a few seconds, sighed, and then looked back to her laptop.

“Uh, yeah, last I checked,” Alex joked with the girl he saw as a sister. “What else does it say?” He quickly changed the subject, not wanting to talk about his hometown. She started listing off random things she found. Like how Allison Mercer had two kids. Both around Julie’s age. And then they found her phone number and Julie quietly asked the dead teen if she could call. He nodded.

It rang once. Twice. And then a voice Alex hasn’t heard in 26 years came through from the other end. “Hello?” Alex almost burst into tears, even if his eyes were starting to get glossy.

“Hi, is this Allison Mercer?” Julie spoke into her phone, trying not to tear up at the sight of Alex’s own tears. Julie smiled as she got a slightly nervous “Yes.”  
“Uhm, hi. I’m Julie Molina and I live in the house your brother, Alex, used to practice in?” They could both hear her breath hitch on the other side of the line. “I was wondering if we could meet up. I found some things of his in our studio that you might want?” Alex was now silently crying. He knew this whole thing was going to be emotional, but getting a chance to see his sister all grown up? He wouldn’t miss that for the world.

“Uh, yeah. I work down at Jack’s Records on the pier. We could meet there after I get off work tomorrow?” Julie nodded before realizing she was on a call and then answered with a “Sure.” Alex chuckled at her mistake and wiped his face with his pink hoodie sleeve, smiling at Julie. “Okay, I have your number, so I’ll text you the details in a few minutes. And, uh, Julie?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Julie smiled and whispered her answer in return, Alex not hearing the words she said. Though they sounded like 'No problem,' so we'll just go with that. Julie clicked the red phone icon and set her phone down on the bed. She looked at Alex, eyes starting to get the same gloss as she smiled and went to hug him before remembering he was, well, dead. So the two just sat there, smiling and crying, for a while until Luke came in to remind them they still had practice. But that was forgotten when he saw his teary-eyed best friends sitting on Julie's bed, giggling because, well, they just did that.


End file.
